A Word in Season: The Tongue of the Learned (Isaiah 50:4)

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What sweet words are spoken of the Lord's Messiah, in Isaiah 50 and verse 4.

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The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary.

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He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to hear as the learned.

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This was a precious gift indeed that the Lord God of heaven should give to his servant and should give in his servant to us.

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He was learned. Our Lord Christ was truly learned. That doesn't just mean he was intellectually brilliant.

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It doesn't mean simply that doctrinally he could cross all his T's and dot all his

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I's. Although that he certainly could do. It doesn't mean somebody who simply has all the answers to all the questions and from a great height can speak down to all the rest of us numpties who don't really understand anything.

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Rather this is a man who has been discipled. He awakens me morning by morning.

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He awakens my ear to hear as the learned. It gives us a little insight into the development of our

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Lord Jesus Christ who grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men who would have heard the word of God and drunk it in eagerly and under those perfect influences of the

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Holy Spirit in his sinless soul would have accumulated knowledge and wisdom would have understood the word of God in all its dimensions and implications.

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But that was a properly useful knowledge. It resulted in a tongue that was learned.

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And you see that in the pages of the New Testament in particular as it comes to fulfillment in the life and ministry of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. His were lips that dripped knowledge. There was the honey of God's word upon his mouth.

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When he speaks, when he instructs, when he rebukes, when he warns, when he exhorts, when he directs there is this perfect and penetrating wisdom and understanding that carries

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God's truth right into the heart right into the life of the men and women to whom he speaks.

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When we say he's never at a loss for words it doesn't mean for one moment that he's just got the gift of the gab.

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Rather he has the tongue of the learned to know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary.

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These are apples of gold in settings of silver. Just the right words at just the right time for the one who is weary.

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The one who is troubled or downcast, who is distressed and broken. The one whose spirit yearns for rest and for peace.

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Christ still knows how to speak a word in season to the one who is weary.

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As we open his book, as we study his truth, we ourselves receive the very truths that we need to sustain our souls.

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To save us, to direct us, to keep us. We open our

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Bibles and as the spirit of Christ helps us so we read, we study, we engage.

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And there our God speaks his word to us and our souls are first of all directed to him who is the learned one.

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He's still bringing peace, still bringing rest, still bringing joy to those who are downcast, those who are sin broken.

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He knows how to lift up the fainting heart. He knows how to cheer the despondent spirit.

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He knows how to exhort the one whose hands are hanging down. He knows how to call on the one who has begun to flag.

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He knows to stir up the one who has begun to drag his feet. Christ still speaks a word in season to him who is weary.

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And we need to learn to do the very same. We need to be ourselves discipled by the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be instructed by God. We need to plead for his spirit to illuminate our own hearts.

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That as we read the word of God with the help that only the spirit can give, we ourselves would also accumulate knowledge in order that it might be wisely, graciously and compassionately employed.

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So let us go today to our books, the Bible, and let us go to those who are weary and speak a word in season that we may be a blessing to them.